Labor and Beazley fail to win trust on Economy and National Security, so whats new?

Beazley failing to win trust
By Steve Lewis
February 28, 2005
From:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12391701-421,00.html

JUST one in five voters believes Kim Beazley is best equipped to manage the economy, underscoring Labor's challenge to convince middle Australia that it can be trusted on interest rates.

Labor is also struggling to convince the public that it is best able to handle national security issues, despite the appointment of the former defence minister as Opposition Leader just over a month ago.
Voter perceptions on broader social and environmental issues have also shifted in the Coalition's favour, according to a Newspoll conducted exclusively for The Australian.

Just 20 per cent of voters rate the Opposition as best able to manage the economy. Despite the spectre of higher interest rates, 60 per cent of voters rate the Government as best able to look after Australia's economic future.

In its post-election analysis, the Opposition recognised it needed to do much more to establish economic credibility, both with the big end of town and middle Australia. But the Newspoll shows Labor has a big gap to close before it is considered as trustworthy as the Coalition to manage inflation and monetary policy.

Similarly, Mr Beazley's reappointment as Opposition Leader has done nothing to shift public opinion on who is best equipped to manage national security. Nearly 60 per cent of voters deem the Government best able to handle national security, against just 21 per cent for the ALP.

Alarmingly for Mr Beazley, whose national security credentials are highly considered, Labor's support has actually declined since June 2004. At that stage, with Mark Latham taking the fight up to Mr Howard, Labor was preferred by 26 per cent, against 50 per cent for the Government.

The Newspoll was conducted on the weekend of February 19 and 20, before last Tuesday's announcement by the Prime Minister that Australia was deploying a further 450 troops to Iraq.
It shows that health and Medicare continue to be the most important election issues for voters, followed closely by education and the economy.
But the Government's attempts to nullify Medica
re as a glaring weakness appear to have worked. Labor has only a slender lead - 40 per cent to 37 per cent - over the Government on managing health and Medicare. The gap is even closer - 40 to 39 per cent, in Labor's favour - on education.